Volume 7, Number 1, April 2015 pp 1-3
www.um.edu.mt/cres/ijee
Editorial
Special issue: Promotion of Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young
People
Guest Editors: Phillip T. Sleea, Donna Crossa & Grace Skrzypiecc
a
Flinders Univeristy, Australia
c Edith
Cowen University, Perth, Australia
Welcome to the special edition of the International Journal of Emotional Education on the Promotion
of Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young People. The purpose of this issue is to highlight research
methodologies used to promote mental health in children and young people.
This edition has been supported by the Edith Cowan University Children’s Mental Health and
Wellbeing Collaborative Research Network (CRN) and the Flinders Centre for Student Wellbeing and the
Prevention of Violence (SWAPv)1. This special edition draws together a number of major streams of research
which focus on different methodologies used to research mental health in young people. Mental health is a
national and international priority (see special edition of ‘The Psychology of Education Review’ edited by
Humphrey and Qualter, 2013, and the reviews by Carta et al., 2015). For example, in the Australian context
the Council of Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Mental Health 2006–2011 (COAG, 2010)
and the recent Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform 2012–2022 (COAG, 2012) identified promotion,
prevention and early intervention for positive mental health as essential actions for governments and
organisations to undertake. National evaluations of KidsMatter Mental Health have been undertaken in
Australia highlighting the delivery of effective school-based mental health interventions (Slee et al., 2009;
Slee et al., 2013). Another Australian initiative has been the ‘Cyber Friendly Schools’ intervention led by
Donna Cross. This was one of the first intervention projects to empirically evaluate over a three year period
the effectiveness of cyberbullying intervention that actively involved secondary school students. The five
papers in this special edition make a unique contribution to the corpus of our practical and theoretical
1
SWAPv website: http://www.flinders.edu.au/ehl/swapv/
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understanding of methodologies to enhance wellbeing in educational settings.
The paper by Monks et al. (Australia) addresses the issue of social media use by young people. The
authors investigate how young people perceive the feasibility and acceptability of social media when used as a
research tool to investigate various issues relevant to their mental health and wellbeing. In her paper Lysaght
(Ireland) traces the design, development and pilot of the Assessment for Learning Audit instrument (AfLAi) a research tool for measuring Irish teachers’ understanding and deployment of formative teaching, learning
and assessment practices. Particular consideration is given to the issue of pupils’ self-regulation as part of
their classroom learning. The paper by Cross and colleagues (Australia) describes the active engagement of
‘student voice’ to develop and implement an intervention to reduce cyberbullying in the Australian school
context. The authors evaluated this novel intervention as part of a longitudinal project. In their study of Indian
school students, Skrzypiec and colleagues (Australia) investigated the nature of bullying in the Punjab region
of India using the PhotoStory Method. They also enabled student voice and sought to discover how young
people in India perceived and experienced incidents of bullying using photo images. The fifth paper by Brighi
and colleagues (Italy) provides unique insight into the affiliative peer networks of pre-school children using a
socio-metric procedure specifically adapted for use with young children. Their findings highlight the role of
socio-emotional functioning and linguistic skills in understanding the dynamics of peer affiliation.
This special edition reflects well on an earlier call by Benbenishty and Astor (2008) for global
cooperation in the field of mental health and violence prevention. Supported by the vision of the editors of this
journal, this edition includes papers from around the globe that provide invaluable insight into the range of
innovative methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method) can be creatively employed to provide
insight for practitioners, researchers and policy makers into matters pertaining to mental health and violence
prevention in our schools and communities. The demonstrable rigour and thoughtful analysis underpinning all
of the papers provides evidence-based surety to advance the scientific understanding of how best to promote
the wellbeing and mental health needs of the most vulnerable in our community.
References
Benbenishty, R. & Astor, R. (2008). School violence in an international context: A call for global
collaboration in research and prevention. International Journal of Violence and School,7, 59-80.
Carta1, M. G., Fiandra, T. D., Rampazzo, L., Contu, P. & Preti, A. (2015). An overview of international
literature on school interventions to promote mental health and wellbeing in children and adolescents.
Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 11(Suppl 1: M1), 16-20
COAG. (2010). National Action Plan on Mental Health (2006–2011). Canberra: Council of Australian
Governments, Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved on 12th January 2015 from:
http://www.health.gov.au/coagmentalhealth
COAG. (2012). The Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform (2012–2022). Canberra: Council of
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Australian Governments, Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved on 12th January 2015 from:
http://www.coag.gov.au/node/482
Humphrey, N. & Qualter, P. (2013). New Directions in Emotional Education and Development. The
Psychology of Education Review, 37(2).
Slee, P. T., Lawson, M. J., Russell, A., Askell-Williams, H., Dix, K. L., Owens, L. Skrzypiec, G. & Spears, B.
(2009). KidsMatter Primary Evaluation Final Report. Centre For Analysis of Educationa Futures,
Flinders University. Retrieved on 15th January 2015 from http://www.kidsmatter.edu.au
Slee, P.T., Murray-Harvey, R., Dix, K.L., Skrzypiec, G., Askell-Williams, H., Lawson, M.J. & Krieg, S.
(2012). KidsMatter Early Childhood Evaluation. Centre For Analysis of Educationa Futures, Flinders
University. Retrieved on 15th January 2015 from http://www.kidsmatter.edu.au
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